Leave it to Salon to get things wrong, time and time again. The article, written by terrorism scholar and Professor of Practice and Director of Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism, Jason Blazakis, says it all.

To sum this up, Antifa is not a group, so it should not be treated as a “terrorist organization”. Antifa is more an idealology, a movement. And, any poor soul who even has the notion that Antifa can be instrumental in terrorism or classified as a terrorist group is “confused”.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio invited representatives from more than 60 countries to Washington to hear an argument that many of them appear not to believe: that a transnational far-left terrorist movement called antifa threatens the democratic world. At the event, allies were asked to mobilize against that enemy despite nations like the Netherlands and Germany politely noting to their host that they cannot find evidence of any such group.

As a terrorism scholar who spent a decade running the State Department office that designates terrorist organizations, I understand their confusion. The threat the administration describes does not exist in the form the administration describes it.”-Jason Blazakis, Salon

Not a terrorist organization at all.

The reasoning Antifa is not what some Conservatives think it is (AKA a terrorist organization)? Well, Blazakis has his theories. For one, they don’t have a (documented) chain of command like, for example, al-Qaida. Therefore, the Trump administration cannot sanction an organization that “does not exist”.

It’s impossible for me to do my job down at the Portland ICE facility, even with security. I was violently mobbed out by Antifa, and a suspect in black bloc threw a rock at my face.

I have zero desire to discuss this further, but everyone is tired of it and wondering why a… pic.twitter.com/E0zNe0jjRe

— Katie Daviscourt 📸 (@KatieDaviscourt) May 2, 2026

And, since Antifa “does not exist”, and does not have “a documented chain of command”, you cannot “decapitate a movement with no head”. I suppose you can be as violent as you want to be and bust windows, throw Molotov cocktails at cars and throw rocks in people’s faces and not be considered a (domestic) terrorist if your organization does not have a leader at the helm. No terrorism to see here. The Trump administration is spinning fiction again. All of those poor, confused Americans who think Antifa is a violent, terrorist organization are so misinformed and, well, dumb, because they’re not “scholars” of terrorism. They would not know terrorism if it hit them like a rock in the face. Roger that, Jason.

In fact, the Trump administration does not have the legs to attack this cluster#ck of an organization because, (again, according to Blazakis):

First, no legal authority exists to designate domestic organizations as terrorist groups. It’s a gap that Congress has deliberately preserved for First Amendment reasons.

Second, the order designates as an organization something the FBI’s past leadership has described as an ideology. Trump’s executive order asserts an antifa enterprise into existence and then declares war on it.”-Jason Blazakis, Salon

Oh, @FBI, this might be a problem…

— 🦋✨Blueflower222✨🦋 (@BlueflowerNew22) July 21, 2026

Militant antifascism is just an ideology, after all. Take Rose City Antifa:

The broadest answer to this is that antifascism is any activity that is intended to oppose and/or disrupt fascist organizing. This can range from the “everyday antifascist” who participates in call-in campaigns, sends in tips and helps build an antifascist culture that is resistant to fascism, or militant antifascists like Rose City Antifa who work to ensure that there are consequences for fascists who spread their hate and violence in our city.”-Rose City Antifa

Doxxing. Violence. Screaming in people’s faces. Destroying property that is not yours to wreck. All because you hate “fascism”.

Over our 13 years of organizing we’ve found that the most effective way to prevent the indoctrination of new fascists is to confront fascist organizing at every opportunity. Militant opposition to fascism creates the social consequences that make becoming a fascist in the first place a lot less appealing.”-Rose City Antifa

Pot, meet the Black Bloc.

Blazakis makes the argument that if the Trump Administration goes hard on Antifa, using administration resources to go after them as a terrorist organization, there will be resources taken away from real threats – “from groups with leaders, actual funding and malicious intent”. Again, someone has to “organize” and hide behind a mask but they’re not “true leaders”, so therefore they are not a “true terrorist organization”. And funding? Trust me, Antifa has flush cash coming from somewhere (ahem-Democrats). And nothing say “malicious intent” like doxxing a person who dares to oppose your organization’s views or throwing a rock at their face.

Dozens of animalistic ANTIFA just SURROUNDED the restaurant FRIDA we were at in LA and throwing things at the WINDOWS!!!! 😳

GLENDALE POLICE had to escort us THROUGH THE KITCHEN to the parking garage because our TIRES WERE SLASHED!!!! 😡😡

TRUMP DOJ MUST STOP ANTIFA NOW!!!🙏 pic.twitter.com/mJvRM1m3b8

— Jake Lang – January 6 Political Prisoner 🇺🇸 (@JakeLang) July 12, 2026

So Antifa? They’re not terrorists, you big dummies. They’re organizers. They’re ideologues. They’re just jobless bums who want the rest of the country to take care of them (because that’s not bowing to fascism at all). They are doing God’s work daily (no real job needed) by venturing out of Mom’s basement after a 3-day video game bender and listening to Hasan Piker‘s ode to Mao Zedong. They are opposing the most fascist of fascist fascism behind their cowardly black outfits and masks.

Photo Credit: fyucha/FlickR/Creative Commons/Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)/Cropped